圣彼得堡特 Spotlight on St.Petersburg St.Petersburg.The very name brings to mind some of Russia's greatest poets,writers and composers:Pushkin,Dostoevsky,Tchaikovsky.The 19th century was a golden age for St.Petersburg's wealthy classes.It was a world of ballets and balls,of art and literature,of tea and caviar. 圣彼得堡,只要提到这个名字就让人想起那些俄国最伟大的诗人、作家以及作曲家:普希金、杜斯妥也夫斯基、柴可夫斯基。十九世纪对圣彼得堡的富有阶级来说是段黄金岁月。那是一个充满了芭蕾舞和舞会、艺术和文学、茶和鱼子酱的世界。 The golden age ended with the advent of World War 1.Working people were growing more and more discontented.In 1917,Communism came,promising peace and prosperity. 这段黄金岁月因为第一次世界大战的来临而结束。工人阶级的不满愈来愈高涨。1917年时,共产党来了并向人民保证和平与繁荣。 St.Petersburg had become Petrograd in 1914.People wanted a Russian name for their city.Ten years later,the city's name changed again,this time to Leningrad.Then in 1991,Leningraders voted to restore the city's original name.Some people opposed the name change altogether.Others thought it was just too soon.Old,run-down Soviet Leningrad,they said,was not the St.Petersburg of 19th-century literature.
What,then,is St.Petersburg?In the confusing post-Communist world,no one really knows.The quiet,if Soviet-style,dignity is gone.The Communist sayings are down,and gaudy advertising up.Candy bars and cigarettes are sold from boxy,tasteless kiosks.And clothing?Well,anything goes.Everyone wants to be a little different.But many people do not know the true meaning of freedom.Personal crime has gone up,up,up in the past few years.
Yet in spite of this,you can still find some of the city's grand past.Stand at the western tip of Vasilievsky Island.To the right is the elegant Winter Palace,former home of the czars.Its light blue sides and white classical columns make it perhaps St.Petersburg's most graceful building.It houses one of the worlds most famous art museums:the Hermitage.Inside,20km of galleries house thousands of works of art.Look over your right shoulder.The massive golden dome of St.Isaac's Cathedral rises above the skyline.You'll see,too,why St.Petersburg is called a "floating city."Standing there,nearly surrounded by water,you can see four of the city's 42islands.
Cross the bridge and turn behind the Winter Palace.In the middle of the huge Palace Square stands the Alexander Column.It commemorates Russia's victory over Napoleon.The 650-ton granite column is not attached to the base in any way.Its own weight keeps it upright.Hoisted into place in 1832,it has stood there ever since.
Continue to Nevsky Prospekt,the heart of the old city.Let the crowds hurry by while you take your time.Admire the fine carving on bridges and columns,above doorways and windows.Cross over canals and pass by smaller palaces and other classical structures.Let your eyes drink in the light blues,greens,yellows and pinks.
Take time to wander among Kazan Cathedral's semi circle of enormous brown columns.Or, if you prefer Russian-style architecture,cross the street and follow the canal a short distance.The Church of the Resurrection occupies the site where Czar Alexander 11was assassinated in 1881.
Travel outside the city to Petrodvorets Palace for a taste of old imperial grandeur.After a visit to France in the late 17th century,Peter the Great decided to build a palace for himself better than Versailles.His dream never came true in his lifetime.It took almost two centuries to complete the palace and park complex.
Seldom does any city have the chance to reinvent itself.That chance has now come to St.Petersburg.A few people might hope to return to the glory of the past,but most know that is impossible.They want to preserve the best of past eras and push ahead.You can bet the city won't be old St.Petersburg,but something altogether different.
This is a beautiful spot with exuberant(茂盛的) wood and grass at the foot of the West Hill in the western outskirts(郊区) of Beijing. From the Ming Dynasty on, many high-taste nobles built their private gardens in this place. In the Qing Dynasty perhaps because the Manchu aristocrats(贵族) who had just left their forests and grassland had not accommodated(适应) themselves to the environment of the palaces, they built great imperial gardens there. The Summer Palace that has survived calamities(灾难) in history is one of those architectural masterpieces. This is a marvellous conception of a paradise(天堂) on the earth:
The Long Corridor and the Seventeen Arch Bridge are like ribbons. They frame the Kunming Lake and turn it into a beautiful picture. With the Buddha Fragrance Chamber on the Longevity Hill as the highlight, the lake and mountains become a lively whole.
The West Hill and the pagoda(塔) on top of the Jade Spring Hill blot out the limit of the garden and fuse it into an open expense.
Spring in the Summer Palace is merrily colourful, the summer is leisurely exuberant, the autumn sentimentally bright and winter sober, tranquil(宁静的) and clean.
The beauty of the Summer Palace is kaleidoscopic(千变万化的). First you enter spacious courtyards. Their owners have long passed away, but the peonies(牡丹), crabapples and magnolias (木兰) that have survived them still beam in elegance.
Walking out the grandiose imperial courtyards, through the Long Corridor while enjoying the misty lake, along the scarcely traversed West Dike(堤) and the ride in the forest, you suddenly spot the dream-like Jade Belt Bridge...
With elapse of time those roaming around the Kunming Lake are no more imperial relatives or nobles, but the common people. The beauty of the Summer Palace, however, is timeless. Year after year people greet the spring with the willow branches at the Spring Discerning Pavilion, sink into meditation facing lotus in a kiosk of the Garden of Harmonious Delights, and whisper with the frosted leaves at the tranquil back hill... Rain or shine, the Summer Palace is always enchanting.
The beauty of the Summer Palace is, of course, deliberated. The pavilions, kiosks, terraces, bridges, dikes, corridors are crystallisation of the thousand-year old Chinese landscape gardening. The scenic spots contain a nation?謘s profound philosophical and aesthetic tradition. The Summer Palace was not built for public benefit, but through the turbulent(动乱的) century, the Summer Palace has been displaying the height a civilisation once reached to people of different times and origins.
On 2 December 1998 the Summer Palace was listed in the World Legacy(遗产) of United Nations.
The council of the World Legacy remarked, Chinese imperial gardens with the Summer Palace as a representative is a convincing symbol of one of the great world civilisations
白首有我共你
2026-08-14 09:37:19
FORBIDDEN CITY (紫禁城)
(In front of the meridian gate)
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am pleased to serve as your guide today.
This is the palace museum; also know as the Purple Forbidden City. It is the largest and most well reserved imperial residence in China today. Under Ming Emperor Yongle, construction began in 1406. It took 14years to build the Forbidden City. The first ruler who actually lived here was Ming Emperor Zhudi. For five centuries thereafter, it continued to be the residence of23 successive emperors until 1911 when Qing Emperor Puyi was forced to abdicate the throne. In 1987, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recognized the Forbidden City was a world cultural legacy.
It is believed that the Palace Museum, or Zi Jin Cheng (Purple Forbidden City), got its name from astronomy folklore, The ancient astronomers divided the constellations into groups and centered them around the Ziwei Yuan (North Star) . The constellation containing the North Star was called the Constellation of Heavenly God and star itself was called the purple palace. Because the emperor was supposedly the son of the heavenly gods, his central and dominant position would be further highlighted the use of the word purple in the name of his residence. In folklore, the term “an eastern purple cloud is drifting” became a metaphor for auspicious events after a purple cloud was seen drifting eastward immediately before the arrival of an ancient philosopher, LaoZi, to the Hanghu Pass. Here, purple is associated with auspicious developments. The word jin (forbidden) is self-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded and off-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded and off-limits to ordinary people.
The red and yellow used on the palace walls and roofs are also symbolic. Red represents happiness, good fortune and wealth. Yellow is the color of the earth on the Loess Plateau, the original home of the Chinese people. Yellow became an imperial color during the Tang dynasty, when only members of the royal family were allowed to wear it and use it in their architecture.
The Forbidden City is rectangular in shape. It is 960 meters long from north to south and 750 meter wide from east west. It has 9,900 rooms under a total roof area 150,000 square meters. A 52-meter-wide-moat encircles a 9. 9-meter—high wall which encloses the complex. Octagon —shaped turrets rest on the four corners of the wall. There are four entrances into the city: the Meridian Gate to the south, the Shenwu Gate (Gate of Military Prowess) to the north, and the Xihua Gate (Gate of military Prowess) to the north, and the Xihua Gate (Western Flowery Gate ) to the west, the Donghua (Eastern Flowery Gate) to the east.
Manpower and materials throughout the country were used to build the Forbidden City. A total of 230,000 artisans and one million laborers were employed. Marble was quarried from fangshan Country Mount Pan in Jixian County in Hebei Province. Granite was quarried in Quyang County in Hebei Province. Paving blocks were fired in kilns in Suzhou in southern China. Bricks and scarlet pigmentation used on the palatial walls came from linqing in Shandong Province. Timber was cut, processed and hauled from the northwestern and southern regions.
沉梦听雨
2026-01-07 06:17:17
Republic of France in western Europe. Size 5 5 1 6 0 2 sq km. 3 0 0 0 km long coastline. Residents mostly France. Catholic residents more letter. French as an official language.5 century, a kingdom. 1 5 a centralized state at the end of the century. 1789 eruption of bourgeois revolution. Since then, the Republic has established a five and two empires. 1958 Fifth Republic was born.Prior to the Second World War, France was the second largest of the British colonial empire, the colonial area equivalent to 20 times the local community. After the war, most have separate French colony. January 27, 1964 to establish diplomatic relations with China.Southeast high-low topography. Central and southern central highlands, north-west of Northern France is plain. Most areas of the marine climate of temperate broadleaf forest, coastal and southern Rhone valley to the Mediterranean-type climate is subtropical. Annual average precipitation from northwest to southeast from 6 0 0 to 1 0 0 0 mm increments to mm. Bauxite, uranium ore reserves in Western European countries, tops the first. Iron, potassium is also abundant. Forest area accounted for 26% of the area.Industrialized countries, a high concentration of production and capital GDP amongst the highest in the world. The major industrial sectors of mining, metallurgy, automobiles, shipbuilding, machinery, textile, chemical, electrical, food, etc. Nuclear energy, petrochemical, marine development, arms, aviation and space sectors are developing rapidly and have amongst the highest in the world. 1993 output of major industrial products are : 16.61 million tons of steel, 12.01 million tons of pig iron, coal reached 10.35 million tons, 2.52 million tons of pulp, 2.8 million vehicles cars, generating 4 5 1 0 kW / hour. Agriculture developed for the world famous agricultural exporting countries. Category of major agricultural products are wheat, maize, potatoes, beet, rice, tobacco, grapes. 1 9 9 3 tons of wheat 24.9 million tonnes, barley 6.5 million tons, corn 13.3 million tons, 5.3 billion litres of wine grapes. France is Western Europe "common market" countries, the main target is Western Europe trade "common market" countries. Exports machinery, chemicals, automobiles, steel and food. Imported fuels, the Military Industrialization raw materials, ores. Rail 3 5 0 0 0 km, the road about 8 0 million metres. Capital Paris, a city renowned Eiffel transmission tower, construction, a city southwest Versailles Palace. Automobiles, electrical industry renowned textile and cosmetics industries are also developed. Le Havre, Lille, Rouen, Nantes, Lyon, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Marseille are important industrial center. Other important festivals : National Day on July 14. Mrs. die for a good cause Japan May 30. Established diplomatic relations with Japan : January 27, 1964. Money : franc. Time : one hour earlier than Greenwich time;At night than seven hours. National flower : iris, roses. Name Interpretation : France moves by France evolution from tribal members. France moves in the Germanic language China and Italy as "courageous and free." Folk : France is champagne, brandy wine hometown. It was felt that if left home New Year's Eve Night wine coming year will be to stay. France is the most expensive dishes Egan, the Frenchman most favorite snail and frog legs.
Republic of France in western Europe. Size 5 5 1 6 0 2 sq km. 3 0 0 0 km long coastline. Residents mostly France. Catholic residents more letter. French as an official language.5 century, a kingdom. 1 5 a centralized state at the end of the century. 1789 eruption of bourgeois revolution. Since then, the Republic has established a five and two empires. 1958 Fifth Republic was born.Prior to the Second World War, France was the second largest of the British colonial empire, the colonial area equivalent to 20 times the local community. After the war, most have separate French colony. January 27, 1964 to establish diplomatic relations with China.Southeast high-low topography. Central and southern central highlands, north-west of Northern France is plain. Most areas of the marine climate of temperate broadleaf forest, coastal and southern Rhone valley to the Mediterranean-type climate is subtropical. Annual average precipitation from northwest to southeast from 6 0 0 to 1 0 0 0 mm increments to mm. Bauxite, uranium ore reserves in Western European countries, tops the first. Iron, potassium is also abundant. Forest area accounted for 26% of the area.Industrialized countries, a high concentration of production and capital GDP amongst the highest in the world. The major industrial sectors of mining, metallurgy, automobiles, shipbuilding, machinery, textile, chemical, electrical, food, etc. Nuclear energy, petrochemical, marine development, arms, aviation and space sectors are developing rapidly and have amongst the highest in the world. 1993 output of major industrial products are : 16.61 million tons of steel, 12.01 million tons of pig iron, coal reached 10.35 million tons, 2.52 million tons of pulp, 2.8 million vehicles cars, generating 4 5 1 0 kW / hour. Agriculture developed for the world famous agricultural exporting countries. Category of major agricultural products are wheat, maize, potatoes, beet, rice, tobacco, grapes. 1 9 9 3 tons of wheat 24.9 million tonnes, barley 6.5 million tons, corn 13.3 million tons, 5.3 billion litres of wine grapes. France is Western Europe "common market" countries, the main target is Western Europe trade "common market" countries. Exports machinery, chemicals, automobiles, steel and food. Imported fuels, the Military Industrialization raw materials, ores. Rail 3 5 0 0 0 km, the road about 8 0 million metres. Capital Paris, a city renowned Eiffel transmission tower, construction, a city southwest Versailles Palace. Automobiles, electrical industry renowned textile and cosmetics industries are also developed. Le Havre, Lille, Rouen, Nantes, Lyon, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Marseille are important industrial center. Other important festivals : National Day on July 14. Mrs. die for a good cause Japan May 30. Established diplomatic relations with Japan : January 27, 1964. Money : franc. Time : one hour earlier than Greenwich time;At night than seven hours. National flower : iris, roses. Name Interpretation : France moves by France evolution from tribal members. France moves in the Germanic language China and Italy as "courageous and free." Folk : France is champagne, brandy wine hometown. It was felt that if left home New Year's Eve Night wine coming year will be to stay. France is the most expensive dishes Egan, the Frenchman most favorite snail and frog legs.